Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Anna Greenberger - August 24, 1982

Working for Ex-Nazis

He went there. It was all the Germans. All the workers were Paraguayan and they didn't know that Alex is a Jew. They would have kill him on the spot. Alex slept there. It was twelve kilometers from Asunción. Asunción was the capital city of Paraguay. Well, he came home once a week. He slept there, he had a gun under his head. They beat him up a few times. And they didn't even know that he--they called him Gringo--that he is a Jew. Luckily the foreman was a German and he was a older man, also a Nazi. And his feet swelled up in Paraguay. It was a hundred twenty Fahrenheit--it was horrible, very hot. And he couldn't stay on his feet so much. And his whole family was in Germany. The German government wouldn't let them out, because they were war criminals. So he saved up for himself for a ticket and he said he cannot work there anymore, he has to go back to Germany. So he went back and Alex remained there. There was another German who was uh, working with him, so he got the manager--the other German. But he had a girlfriend--a Paraguayan woman--and he was stealing from the factory--it was a salami factory--all kind, not just salami. They made--like Alexander's here were, uh, I don't know if you were married already--in Northland was Alexander's--they had all kind of sausages and...

Mm-hm.

...salami and--so when the other German went to Germany, the next German was the manager. And somebody told the boss that he's stealing and selling on the market his stuff. So he disappeared, the German. And the Nazi that Alex worked, he had already two stores. And many people store--he took his store to supplies and many restaurants and stores to supply, and here is no manager and the rest are just workers. They were working and working and Alex knew the profession, so he was from home. They started to work and the Nazi came in and he said, "Where is the foreman?" And Alex said, "He didn't come in." He said, "Who made the stuff?" Alex said, "I did, with the boys." He said, "From today, you are the manager." Alex said, "I'll be the manager, but not for that money that you're paying me." He said, "Okay, I double you the pay." He doubled him the pay. I asked for myself where I was working, more. They give me more. So we had already food.


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